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Summary: All about the life of one of americas greatest generals
Review: A very interesting book, that gives you a detailed account of one of the greatest soldiers that america ever had. With it you can understand the complexities of the caracther of the man who masterminded the landing at Inchon, the defeat of Japan, and it's subsequent recovery to be again a peaceful and infuential member of the community of nations.
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Summary: Excellent, well written and researched
Review: An excellent balanced portrait of a complex and brilliant individual pivotal in the history of 20th century. I found the authors simultaneous analysis of the facts he presents interesting and useful.The previous negative review is very shallow and does an injustice to this very well documented biography. I would agree with the other reviewer that the author appears to have run out of space by the time Korea appears in the book. A surprising page turner for such a large book about an individual from the early and mid parts of the previous century.
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Summary: EXCELLENT STARTING PLACE FOR THE STUDY OF MACARTHUR
Review: As several reviewers pointed out, this book has a few flaws. I do feel some of the criticisms hurled are a bit off the mark. This is a one volume book. There is absolutly no way a completely comprehensive sudy of this man could be accomplished in such a short space. For a one volume work though, it is very, very good. Yes, you can disagree as to the actual greatness of the man, as reflected in the various stages of his life, but the author has at least presented to us a starting point. This work, along with others, gives us a good picture of Macarthur the soldier and the man. Recommend you read this one.
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Summary: There must be better
Review: Author Perret never finished college, and it shows. He has no intellectual discipline. He researches, but is unable to process the information he researches. This book is incredibly frustrating for its failure to explore and interpret the facts presented. For instance, we learn that MacA's lived with his mother well beyond early aduthood. What was she like? What was their relationship? Was it unususal? How did it influence him? We never learn. Another example: MacA picked out Ike when he was a nobody. Does this say anything about MacA's ability to recognize talent, or was it a fluke? Who knows? Perret's description of the first conversation between MacA and Hirohito is taken directly from MacA's (self-serving?) account, with no skeptical analysis. In light of John Dower's research (in Embracing Defeat), it's laughable. There are a lot of these kinds of problems, and lots of cliched writing to boot. Having spent the time to read through this monster, I think I would have been better off reading American Caesar.
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Summary: A military historian's appreciation of a soldier
Review: Author Perret primarily sympathizes with the professional soldier in Douglas MacArthur, a man whose interests in life focused on his work more than most men's do. Geo-political strategy, raising and training armies, planning campaigns, and facing the enemy in combat are jobs that need doing, and Perret admires MacArthur for doing them wholeheartedly and well. Perret also reports MacArthur' exceedingly self-centered personality, in a matter-of-fact, nobody's-perfect way and with an evident distaste for both MacArthur's weaknesses and for sensationalism. The facts are there to give us a portrait of a type of character that crops up with some frequency, and that all of us, perhaps, need to understand. Perret is explicit in his judgment that MacArthur's megalomania detracted from his professional performance. On finishing Perret's book, I personally had the impression that the U.S.-Japan war would have turned out the same without the battles of Bataan, New Guinea, and Manila, and that these were fought primarily because MacArthur's marvelous personality succeeded in making campaigns revolve around himself rather than around strategic necessity. I would have appreciated it if Perret had more explicitly come to judgment on questions like this, which are essential to an evaluation of MacArthur as a professional soldier. For example, if we had understood MacArthur in this light earlier, perhaps we would have been more alert to the shortcomings of Westmoreland's reporting from Vietnam. Overall, Perret's book gives the impression of being solid information about a man who was great in his field. The book also appears to supersede its predecessors, which Perret evaluates in the course of his narrative.
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Summary: Excellent...the definitive bio of "Big Mac"!!!
Review: General MacArthur is one of those truly fascinating historical figures, one that truly deserves study by even the casual military history student. He has been labeled an "egomaniac", a "primadonna", a "genius", etc., etc. This book attempts to blend all those summations into one biography, and does so flawlessly. Mr. Perret's work is by far better than the other noted MacArthur biography, "American Caesar". Mr. Perret is a great deal more balanced and thoughtful in his treatment. His work is also a good deal more enjoyable to read. The one thing that I think is noteworthy about this book as a whole is that while it does a marvelous job of chronicling MacArthur's life, it is done without casting judgment one way or the other. I noted above that MacArthur draws a wide range of emotions - from egomaniac to genius. Mr. Perret manages to corral all those different facets of MacArthur's personality and present them in such a way that the reader is allowed to see all sides equally and make his own conclusions. That, I believe, is what separates Mr. Perret's work from "American Caesar". "American Caesar" was largely biased towards MacArthur's primadonna persona, and as such, that bio fell on its face. While Mr. Perret expertly and rightfully spends much of his work covering MacArthur's fight for the Phillipines - a place that occupied all his thoughts during WWII - he is remiss in not adequately covering Korea, specifically, the landing at Inchon. That is Mr. Perret's one shortcoming in this book. The Inchon landing was perhaps one of the greatest master strokes of modern warfare, and definitely of MacArthur's waning days in the Army, yet it is passed over without a lot of detail. I think Mr. Perret failed to detail it as it should have. I would have focused on MacArthur's strenuous campaigning to land at Inchon, which was fraught with hazards and potential catastrophe. MacArthur was the only one who could have suggested Inchon, yet was the only one who could have carried it out, much less thought it would have succeeded. Instead, in this bio, Mr. Perret basically glosses it over, much to my disappointment. All in all though, I did enjoy this work very much. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting to read about this amazing and tragic historical giant. It is definitely the better of the MacArthur biographies.
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Summary: This is a thoughtful, balanced life of General MacArthur.
Review: Having admired General MacArthur when I was a boy and kept a scrapbook of clippings on his doings during the Korean War, having read "American Ceasar" by William Manchester, and having been more recently disenchanted with MacArthur from other readings, I found Perret's book wonderful. On the surface, it explains certain things that have remained a mystery to me, e.g., why MacArthur left his airforce on the ground after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It turns out he had ordered the planes redeployed and the orders were not carried out for reasons that Perret explains. At a deeper level, it provides a satisfying picture of MacArthur that avoids the Scylla of criticism and the Charybdis of adulation. Perret comes across as balanced, objective, and factual. And, the reader is left with the feeling that the facts have been presented and he can decide for himself. Finally, Perret seems comfortable exploring the darker aspects of MacArthur's personality. For example, in describing MacArthur's treatment of General Robert Eichelberger, Perret writes "... for MacArthur broke into brave, genial Bob Eichelberger's soul and found the cracks."
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Summary: Possibly the best one-volume biography of MacArthur
Review: I am amazed at the vitriolic diatribe by at least two of the reviewers. In response to one review review, I would like to make just a few corrections. First, if you want to read an outstanding and well-researched biography of Douglas MacArthur, do not read Manchester's. I take no umbrage with her criticism that Perret's biography is not the definitative work (the author's goal was to write the best one-volume biography of this enigmatic man). However, I don't know who C. Clayton Douglas is or what four-volume biography of MacArthur he wrote. I do consider D. CLAYTON JAMES' three-volume biography to be the definitive study on the general to date.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have met the author and like him. He is a very charming individual, careful historian, and good author. I liked the book, not because I felt it is the best biography of MacArthur but because of the way he tells the story. Consider this example.
D. Clayton James, in volume 2 of The Years of MacArthur, relates the story of what happened when land-based airpower finally arrived in Leyte in October 1944. "Monsoon rains and frequent Japanese air attacks during the week following the capture of Tacloban airfield made it difficult for the engineers to lay the 2500 feet of steel matting for a runway for the waiting Fifth Air Force fighters on Morotai. . . . When the first two squadrons of P-38's landed at the field on October 27, MacArthur and Kenney were waiting to greet the pilots as they stepped down from their fighters." (P. 568)
Now compare James's passage to Perret's:
"Two days later MacArthur was having lunch when he heard a familiar sound, the engines of P-38s being throttled back. Kenney had ordered half the 49th Fighter Group to fly up from Morotai. . . . MacArthur called for his car and headed for the airfield to greet the thirty-four fighter pilots. He shook hands with the first three as they descended from their planes onto the half-finished strip. One of them was the AAF's top scoring ace, Major Richard Bong, with twenty-eight victories to his credit. 'You know how glad I am to see you,' he told them, beaming. He turned to the journalists who were clustering around. "'The Fifth Air Force has never failed me.'" (P. 429)
Same episode described two entirely different ways. Is this the best MacArthur biography ever written? No but the first thing I always try to remember when reviewing a book is that it is hard work to write one. The second thing I always try to remember is to segregate my books between the purely academic (i.e. published by a university press) and the popular (i.e. published by a company that at the bottom line is interested in the bottom line). Geoffrey Perret fits the latter category. Challenged to research and write a book every three years, he does a remarkable job of bringing to the general public well-written and entertaining books on historical topics and figures. And, while Old Soldiers Never Die has flaws Perret succeeds in presenting, in this reviewer's opinion, in writing the best one-volume history of this arguably brilliant megalomanic.
Rating:
Summary: Good, not great
Review: I can't claim to be an expert on this subject, but the book seemed reasonably well balanced and researched. Despite the author's assertion in the last chapter that MacArthur is the second greatest general in American history, I'm not convinced. The author does seem to make excuses for MacArthur's "emotional" behaviour and also seems to misrepresent the opposing point of view a few times, especially in the post-Korea chapters. This books requires a bit of work to get through. The writing style isn't overly engaging. The author does quite a lot of "telling" and not enough "showing". We're presented with a fair amount of fact and opinion without the use of anecdotes and stories to illustrate them. Overall however, an interesting book.
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Summary: An interesting, well written book
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. Although long and detailed, I found its style engaging and well organized. It's an easy read. Being able to turn dense historical material into such an interesting book is a triumph. Writing a biography of a controversial personality like MacArthur is challenging and, overall, I think Perret has done a good job. It's too easy to fall in love with your subject and the author is able to resist the temptation to hurruh too much. I think, however, that there are a few areas, where the author seems to accept behaviors that are questionable and problematic. Into his assertion of MacArthur's greatness he never really factors in MacArthur's overly emotional temperament nor his lack of veracity. There is space for further debate here that I think the author missed.
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